Discussion

Quebec City: Adventurous on a Student Budget

I and 8 of my friends are road tripping it from Toronto to Quebec City for Reading Week.I have been delegated the resonsibiliy of making sure we eat well, a task I understand not to be particularly hard in Quebec City. However, as the title suggests, we're all on student budgets. Any suggestions? Quaint places where we'll eat exceptionally well for exceptionally low. Or even places that are reasonably priced with great value. Im talkin anything: resaturants, cafes, creperies, notbable bakeries, great cheese stores, you name it! I will try anything, that gets vouched for. Plus we'll be there for close to a week so we have time. As much detail as you can muster! Thanks!!PS. my friend from the Franco area of Northern Ontario swears that horse is served in French-Canadian places. Is this true in Quebec City or is this a Northern Ontario thing. If it is available in Quebec, is it worth trying and where?

Café Temporel on Couillard for great coffee and croissants.Casse-Crêpe Breton on St-Jean for crepes, either for breakfast or for lunch.Al Wadi, on Grande Allée, for good lebanese. Note that they are open until 4 or 5 am, so it's perfect for an after-clubbing snack. Le 48, on St-Paul, for a trendy scene for mini prices. You can't go to Quebec City without going to Ashton, which makes great poutine. It's a chain that exists only in Quebec City, so you'll find some all over.Chez Victor, also on St-Jean, makes great hamburgers in a cozy atmosphere.You will find great cheeses and breads at l'Épicerie Européenne on St-Jean.Before going out, try Le Cosmos for a trendy, hip scene on Grande-Allée. Very decent food, hot crowd, not very expensive, and it's right on Grande Allée, under Maurice and across the street from Dagobert. You must reserve though. Have a great trip!

I totally forgot to respond to this post to thank you for your advice! The hostel we ended up staying at (auberge de la paix) was right next to cafe temporel: the best croissants i've ever had ever! They had an exquisite table d'hote menu as well with one of the best values i've ever seen. Casse Crepe Breton was great as well as Ashtons. We had one spectacular dinner where we went to epicerie europeanne and got cheese and meat, stopped at a bakery for bread (can't remember what it was but it was close to EE) and had a feast!

One strong reccomendation; L'Ancienne Candienne has a rediculously good Table D'hote lunch. I believe it was $15 for soup, entree, dessert and wine: the menu included a lot of great traditional quebecois food to so it was great for the thrifty yet curious traveler.Thanks again!

Horsemeat is very common in Québec and in other francophone areas such as Northern and (far) Eastern Ontario - sorry, I don't know about Acadia. In terms of low-fat red meat, I much prefer bison, venison or caribou however.

Thanks for taking the time to follow up - yes, Temporel is a lovely place, and older than you. I have fond memories of it from decades back, when we were hippies. I'd suggest Le Billig rather than Breton for crêpes... That is in St-Jean-Baptiste, the area just outside the walls in the upper town, where Épicerie Moisan is located (and Épicerie européenne, if I recall, think it is outside the walls)...

The name of the traditional Québec resto is Aux Anciens Canadiens (which was a famous book) - important to be sticklers when people are doing internet research...

I must get back to Québec for a holiday - I've only been there on business recently, so no choice as to where to eat. :-( and they transport us there and back, so I can't stay over.